Articles written by: Tom Lenting

Though many would argue that Sensible Soccer was the better series, Electronic Arts’ FIFA games helped define the sport of soccer on the Genesis, and they are still very playable today. Some were better than others though, as evidenced by marked contrasts between the ’95 and ’96 installments.

Rise of the Robots will forever be known as a blueprint for poor game design pressed to silicon, and aspiring game designers need look no further when studying the perils of graphics over gameplay. A button-mashing nightmare that had no technique or fighting style at all, the entire experience was an exercise in frustration and usually left the player both exasperated and boiling with rage. The ironic part of all this? Rise of the Robots was ported to a zillion consoles and actually received a sequel. Note to Acclaim and Mirage Technologies: creating a second turd as an act of contrition for the first does not make things right; it makes a pile of turds.

The range of computer ports Electronic Arts brought to the Genesis was quite broad, and everything from RPGs to platformers and action games made the jump. Even racing titles found their way onto Sega’s wonder console, and among the franchises that saw success there was the Lotus series of games. Featuring real cars and a ton of courses, the Genesis port of Lotus III was redubbed as RECS when it was ported. How did it fair against Sega’s own OutRun and others?

Genesis racing fans know that the Micro Machines series can always be relied on for quality. This shines through quite brightly in Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament, which featured excellent multi-player action through its J-cart functions. It was eventually eclipsed by a sequel a year later, but that takes nothing away from this excellent game.

The Genesis has had something of a resurgence over the last few years. From the releases of three new RPGs to a new compilation for modern consoles and the steady stream of games coming to the Wii’s Virtual Console, there’s no shortage of 16-bit goodness to be had. Few should be surprised then, that Sega has turned its cannons to mobile phones. Already releasing titles for the iPhone and other cells, Sega has now began cranking up the amount of Genesis titles being released on Apple’s little wonder.